Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-12-17

A~S Va ~ 0SAS~V S"AS -
c~ilitates sccess to the upper portion OF the
city as easily as the lower, it is true, yet to
strangers the labor of climbing to the up
| per part of the town is something they do
not take to with avidity. For this easo
a site in tho lower central portion of the
| city would be most advisable. The pro-
jects now being discussed may be expected
to assume definite shape in the "a flu.
ture, and should Butte next spring see I'm.
der way more than one hotel enterprise, it
| will simply be taken as evidence that the cap
italists OF this city are alive to the coming
rush of travel which will inevitably set in
next year.
THE INTER MOUNTAIN CHESTNUT.
Our evening contemporary entirely ig-
nores the bad break it made on Monday in
comparing the source of supply of the
| Butte water works with that of Ottawa,
Canada. which is, as yesterday explained
in The MINER. the River Ottawa into
which a creek, impregnatsd with the filth
| of a slaughter house, empties Immediately
above where the water is pumped into the
mains of the city. The Inter Mountain
said 'these conditions, it appears, are very
similar to those in Butte" only that the
sources OF the Butte water supply were
worse contaminated. No one reading the
Inter Mountains article in it's Monday is
sue would infer anything else than that the
water supply OF Butte is taken from a be-
fouled river similar to the Ottawa river,
| and whether that conscientious Journal
intended to nislead it's readers to the ex-
tent stated or not, no other inference was
possible. There is not a line in the article
that fairly states the actual facts as re-
CARDS the source OF supply of the new
water works. 1t was simply a misleading
untruth and as such The MINER character
lied it. This paper was justified in doing
SO by the facts, and when it called a spade
a spade, the public could see that in doing
SO it INDUCED in no "frightful exhibitions
Of Feasibility or nervous excitement"
as the Inter Mountain is pleased to term
this papers structures upon such a palpa-
bic departure from the truth.
This paper, in it's conception of duty
as q conscientious journal" is actuated
solely by the welfare of the community.
It does not believe that it renders a service
to the community by imagining a condi.
ton OF affairs that can only have the effect
OF creating unfounded alarm and ~injuring
the fair name Of the city. 1t knows that
nothing a hurt a town more than declar-
ing the water in use in it full of impurities
such as will produce ar epidemic of typhoid
fever. The conditions existing at Ottawa,
Canada, are such without question. The
conditions in Butte are not, and The MINER
condemns the attempt of the Inter Noun
tain to lead people to believe that there is
the slightest similarity in the two cases as
willfully and knowingly untrue. and it be-
lieves it comes nearer performing the duties
expected of q conscientious journal" in
contending for the truth than in the mere
~tricious publication of q sensation that
has no foundation in truth. The public
will think so, too. and prefer truth at the
expense of q sensation which is SO utterly
untrue, being purely imaginary, as we'll as
doing the community incalculable injury.
In the local columns OF this paper will
be found a full and accurate description of
the sources OF supply Of the water that is
drunk by the citizens OF Butte. By this
the Inter Mountain can become better ill.,
formed as to where the 10000 gallons
comes from that FLOWS into the we'll each
day. etc. By this it can learn that the
Heading mining men, to whom it refers
were simply misled by the health commit
tee in the statements of the latter which
they took on trust and did not derive
from personal observation in assisting
them in their investigations as the Inter
Mountain states. The Heading mining
men" are said to have personally inspected
the portion OF the valley north of Grove
Gulch and accepted as true the state
ments' of the Council Committee relative
to the source of supply of the new water
works. They never inspected the
pump house, or the wells from
which the water supply is drawn
and the inspection of. the committee
must have been acuriously faulty one when
they could speak of the Theoretically closed
box in which the water is conducted from
an iron pipe and a carefully enclosed we'll
as a trench" By referring to the local
page of this paper the Inter Mountain can
see what amount OF TRACTION" the pumps
OF the waterwerks exert in draining up that
subterranean supply. All the "traction"
exerted is simply to take into the pumps
water that, when they are idle, flows off
into Silver Bow creek, three feet lower than
the surface of the well, in a volume equal to
fifteen inches miners measurement. It will
GOA fhof khn ~ofnr in tho walls f-~~n ,vL:nl
the p jumps draw their supply is an under.
ground spring that forces it's way to the
surface whenever given vent. and that it is
no more possible for seepage from the
marsh it gloats over to affect it than il it
was on the other side of the divide, and
that it's ghoulish reference to the slaughter
houee and it's filthy corral is super6uous
and purely sensational. As to the Inter
Mountain's assertion that Professor Chand-
ler's analysis was insufficient to detect
typhoid poison in water, We have that
analysts statement, after making the
analysis, that 1.-THE water does not show (
any evidence whatever of contamination"
Seeing, then, that a man of science pro-
least impurity now, and that there is no
possibility OF any OF the contamination
that the Inter Mountain trolls like q sweet
morsel under it's tongue" in it's illusions
penetrating to the sources of supply, The /
MINER declines to indulge in speculations |
about a supposititious state of facts that |
not now, and never can have, any |
existence. The reprehensible scare that the
Inter Mountain has endeavored to |
foster is based simply on the superstition OF
q non-existent condition Of facts. Its
hobby is the seepaee theory. That theory
is knocked higher than Beecher's Life of
by the simple statement of facts
in the local columns of this
paper to-day. That being 80, all discussion
OF what would happen if SO and sc were the |
case is as profitable as an argument upon
what would occur should an irresistible |
force encounter al immovable body. The
Inter Mountain should drop the water SUBJ
ject. It is becoming q chestnut. People |
are tired Of theorizing.
: The Inter Mountain should not withhold
from the community the name of the water
company in the interest Of whichit has pub
lished so many malicious misstatements
about the existing supply, with a view to
off consumers.